Guns. Lots of guns

Guns. Lots of guns

One thing that we get questions (and suggestions) quite frequently is on the topic of weapons. People ask us “what kind of weapons will there be? Will there be more weapons? What about gun customization? What do they look like?” This leads to the inevitable “show me the guns!”

Well today I am happy to answer some of those questions and show off some weapons with some side-by-side comparisons to the original game’s arsenal. The list of weapons is always shifting, growing, and changing. Most of your favorites from the original game are making an appearance alongside some fancy new additions!

1911 Comparison

1911 details

So to kick things off, if you’re a gun-nut like I am, one of the first things you’ll notice is that the names and brands of the weapons have changed – they are not “real” anymore. Now this is because we’re now working on a commercial product and we have to respect existing copyrights and trademarks. So we’ve made up substitutions; “Beretta” for example becomes “Fierra”, “Glock” substituted with “Eder” and “Ruger” is replaced with “Gruber”. This sort of change is also present in a few of the gun names as well, as some of those too are trademarked. So with that being said, don’t be alarmed when you pick up a firearm with an unfamiliar name!

We’ll start with firearms. The most noticeable change and improvement with the weapons you will see right away that the visuals are of a much higher quality. Our weapon selection was put together as a joint effort between myself and friend of the team Tim Bergholz of Chamfer Zone (www.chamferzone.com), who made most of our firearm art. We worked with the arsenal of the first game and made a few changes and additions, and Tim cranked out some amazing models and textures as we went down the list, and you can see here just how much of a quality improvement his skills have brought to the guns. We’ve put together a few side-by-side comparisons of some select guns from the original game compared to their new equivalents so you can see for yourself, starting with the M16A4:

M16A4 details

The basics of guns in general function more or less the same as what you’re used to. No on-screen crosshair – requiring you to use ironsights for accuracy, no permanent HUD for ammo – requiring you to do ammochecks, the ability to unload ammo from guns, the ability to perform skillshots, and using flashlights with handguns. On top of all that, though, we’re adding in a few new things too. These two little features alone should add plenty more to the gunplay of NMRiH2.

Flare Gun comparison

The first new feature is the ability to use “alternate ammo”. For pistol calibers (sans .357 Magnum) that alt-ammo is HP or Hollowpoint; inflicting massive damage to a single soft target. For most rifle calibers (plus .357 Magnum) the alt-ammo is AP or Armor Piercing; dealing huge amounts of damage armored enemies human or zombie and passing through multiple soft targets. A couple rifle calibers have API rounds, or Armor Piercing Incendiary which is exactly what it sounds like. And finally we have 12-gauge shotguns shells which, to make the shotgun class of weapons more versatile, come in buckshot, slug, and finally dragon’s breath. This feature is still hugely work in progress and is subject to change like everything else, but that’s the intention!

CX8 Alaris carbine with attachable sights

The second new feature is gun customization. If you’re familiar with Crysis, our system works similarly. You can enable on-the-spot gun customization allowing you to attach suppressors, tactical lights, sights, and more to your firearms. Every firearm is different with what options are available to you. You can find parts in the world or you have the chance to bring them into the game with you from your Steam Inventory – but that’s a whole other game mechanic that we’ll explore in the future 😉

Eder 22 (with attachable light) compared with Glock 17

Eder 22 details

Another change with firearms this time around is that they will no longer “rest” in a hipfire idle state. Now, when you’re just standing around or milling about, your gun will be in a “rest idle” position held up at the side if a pistol or down in front of your body if a long gun. it’s a small change, and doesn’t impact much, but visually it’s a really nice addition that enhances your immersion.

Now don’t worry we haven’t forgotten about melee! There will be all your old favorites and some new additions as well. Once again their function will be similar: quick swings and charged attacks, shoving, throwing, and flashlight support for one-handed weapons. This time, though, certain melee weapons have “tool functions” so for example you can use a crowbar to prise a manhole cover. Charged attacks have also seen a slight change; when you begin charging a weapon your character will quickly come to a complete stop, “planting” your feet down to ground yourself for a strong swing. This means you can’t just forever run around the map with a charged baseball bat looking for heads to knock off – you’re going to need to be a bit more strategic!

Melee weapons have also gotten an art overhaul, and we’ve included a few more side-by-side comparisons for you all!

Machete comparison

We also have the ammoboxes – much like the guns, we needed to make up all fictional names but we wanted to try and stick as close to the color schemes you are all familiar with from the original game. We’ve also added a couple new calibers to the game including .40 S&W and 5.7mm – Check these out and you can let us know if you feel they are recognizable! (Keep in mind this is just a first pass of their art, and we’ll probably make a few boxes open with exposed bullets like in the first game.)

The primary firearm calibers

So thank you for joining me today to talk about weapons, hopefully you’ve enjoyed taking a look at the art we’ve done and maybe you’re super pumped to use them when we launch the game! If you’ve ever wanted to make gun models like you see here, our buddy Tim Bergholz at Chamfer Zone has a series of tutorials for 3D Studio Max and Substance Painter that’ll teach you how to be an art pro!

Join us next month for another Dev Blog, and we’ll end off with a huge array of images for you to enjoy!

42 Comments

Sham

acedirt234

July 17, 2017 at 5:09 pm

Different ammo types and gun customization are welcome additions in my eyes.

I am skeptical on the area of bringing items in from the steam inventory. players are smart, and the moment they realize NMRIH is a pay to play, major backlash will ensue. (learn from Payday 2 and the microtransactions) This might not be the case in your game, but keep this in mind.

This might be far fetched, but can introduce the mechanic of managing ammo and clips/magazines as seen in unturned. e.g. you have to go to inventory to manually load each mag before reloading. This would help with immersion, but not with ease of gameplay.

Belkan

July 17, 2017 at 7:46 pm

The moment I started reading it off I was about to suggest different ammo types buuuuuut… it had already been covered. Still, apart from it, I thought about a range of possibilities which would add to the variety. So, you have a bat, and nothing more than a wood bat but, you could find an aluminium one, and another with a baseball team’s markings and decals, or one about to break, a nailed one, wired and so it goes. Of course, this could be applied to every single weapon, or at least most of them. Maybe taping or adding a rag to its handle so it doesn’t slip from your hands once it gets bathed in blood, which could be purely visual or add to stability. And it goes for the frying pan, which could be found rusty, dirty, brand new or even with a missing handle…
I think this would go great on the game. Now take a look at a firearm, it can be a 1911. You are get into what seems to be an abandoned shack and surprised, you find it, the 1911. It’s dusted and if not cleaned properly or fit with good .45, it is mostly prone to jam, or explode, generally speaking about guns. Firearms would also have their variants and there’s no better example than the AK family, but further to it, there would be rifles adapted with caliber conversions, with scratches to add to age, engravings or else. Firearms availability would have to match the location, country the scenario is based on.

Anyways, keep up the great work guys! The visuals are sweet, and I am curious to know which new weapons are getting added. Looking forward to NMRiH2!

Belkan

July 17, 2017 at 7:51 pm

In short, weapons, firearms, tools and etc would be found and fitted in and with a range of materials to add to imersion and variety of the game. The same bat could come both in aluminium and wood, that being said the material itself or what it’s fitted on it would significantly change the performance of the same weapon, be it for stability, damage and so it goes.

David Meade

Holy Crap

July 17, 2017 at 8:16 pm

Fantastic texture and model work guys. I’m already hyped.

One question though: if we’re gonna have those new idle animations, will our character’s torso and legs be visible when we aim down? I feel not too many games use this and, if done correctly, I think it looks stunning.

Ezekiel J. Proctor

Aurora

Danskjävlar

July 18, 2017 at 8:40 am

This is making me incredibly excited. The only incredibly nitpicky thing i see is that the hammer on the 1911 is not cocked and the safety is on. Since a 1911 is a single-action only pistol the hammer needs to be cocked for it to fire at all. Obviously this is just concept art but this detail is something that so many games miss with the 1911. At least i hope it will have a firing pin, unlike the 1911 in Battlefield 1 *Ahem* 😛 Still i’m incredibly excited for this game bringing back the true horror of the zombie horde!!

gomatus1998c9

July 18, 2017 at 1:23 pm

Now this is what i call ULTRA QUALITY TEXTURES!!!! 😀 But just seeing this, kinda makes me horried about how my pc will run the game once it’s released… Well… keep up the good work and one more thing i wanted to ask! Will the characters in 3º person view have exact reload animations has the ones in 1º person view? And about reloading, will in 3º person view the character actually pull out the empety magazine/shell/carthidge out of the gun and trow it onto the ground and then pull out a new one?

gomatus1998c9

July 18, 2017 at 1:25 pm

OH, i forgot to ask one thing! I bet one of the devs still remembers me asking for this weapon but if he doesn’t, i don’d mind it any way, onto the point of this comment! Will the *M1 Garand* happear in the game? O_O

WerewolfNightmare

July 18, 2017 at 7:15 pm

Actually, nevermind about #2. I didn’t know the flashlight was going to be a separated item from the gun. Sorry about that.

Otherwise than that, I just think they shouldn’t replace the new machete with the old machete. Keep the old machete and the new machete, but make then separate to each other like the old machete being a “Latin Machete” or something, and the new called a “Modernized Machete” or “Combat Machete” or something. Other than that, it’s looking real great! 🙂

Bob

David Meade

July 26, 2017 at 11:38 pm

We’re thinking really hard about how to convey our ammo types in inventory and world easily. We have concepts in the works that we’re happy with but with all features it does come down to play testing.

Ivun

July 21, 2017 at 1:30 am

I must admit that I’d love to see real world counterparts but that would be a crazy nightmare to keep up with. You get one company… but another denies it or doesn’t respond… then you have fake names mixed with real ones and it doesn’t hold it’s pedigree with the few real ones if there’s even a couple fake names.

My complaint is though, that the .45 ACP box looks nothing like the one from the original. You did a great job with the rest of them… but veteran players might get a bit thrown off by the different coloration. I’d at least keep it to the whole “Black/White/Red” theme because as a player of the original it screams to me “Wunderpistol food!”

Wooge...McDeegan

Morbo

July 23, 2017 at 9:24 am

I would suggest that melee weapons have a second charge, that allows you to move, but is less powerful – there could be some kind of drawback or limitation, like draining stamina as you move when keeping it charged, further diminishing its power compared to a charged attack from standing, or a regular attack on the move. Would add a greater element of timing and risk/reward to it

SlickMcRunFast

Macer75

August 3, 2017 at 8:43 am

Oh boy… the new weapon charging mechanism is probably going to kill the game for me. I used to be a melee specialist, and my favorite part of the game was killing hordes of zombies quickly and without taking any damage myself using the charged attack with the pipe or crowbar (or other melee weapons that work almost as well).

Kochiya

WinCh1887

August 29, 2017 at 3:36 pm

I’m a huge fan of the first game and I’m really happy how the second game is coming together. I wanted to ask you if lever-action will make a return and if adding Winchester model 1887 could be a posibility. Not many games have this gun and I think it would add a lot more of variety to the shotguns because not only we would have pump action and double barrel/break action shotguns but also a lever action shotgun. Anyways love your work and keep it up!

Father Ted

August 30, 2017 at 11:20 pm

Will we be seeing a return of the bayonet? Maybe some other stabbing weapons or weapons with an alternate attack that is a stab? Such attacks/weapons could either have better range or speed but do less damage.

Blazk0

September 17, 2017 at 12:37 pm

Blazk0 here – I check in twice a month. You guys are doing GREAT! I loved the first NMRIH , my friend and I will be buying this game the day it comes out. I really hope you will keep the objective-based aspects to it , the “nmo” maps. NMRIH is the ONLY truly objective based zombie game! thats why , i believe , it was so successful. the more objectives the better! the longer the maps takes to complete, the better! Keep up he GREAT work guys, i cannot WAIT to see the end result!